Bullpen Injury Updates: Mitre, Joba, Feliciano, Logan

We’re inching closer and closer to Opening Day, so minor injuries are starting to become a little bit more of a concern. Here’s the latest on what’s going on with the walking wounded out in the bullpen, courtesy of MarcCarig and Chad Jennings…

Sergio Mitre is scheduled or three or four innings this afternoon, so it’s safe to say his oblique issue is a thing of the past.

Joba Chamberlain‘s strained oblique was well enough that he threw long-toss yesterday, and tomorrow he’s scheduled to throw a bullpen session. Assuming that goes well, he should get back into a game sometime next week.

Pedro Feliciano is dealing with a dead arm, but Joe Girardi downplayed the extent of the fatigue and just called it “extra rest.” The only reason this is a concern is because Feliciano is 34 years old and has made like 900 appearances in each of the last four years, but dead arms are pretty common this time of year.

Boone Logan went through a dead arm phase of his own recently, but now he’s dealing with back spasms. He did pitch in last night’s game, so the back stuff is pretty fresh. “As long as they’re just back spasms, it’s usually four or five days,” said Girardi. “They’re no fun, I know that.”

Wouldn’t that be something; more than $9M tied up between three lefty relievers, and they all start the season on the disabled list? Yikes. Hopefully that won’t come to fruition.

Dead arm sounds so bad even if it’s not. I guess it’s better that murdered arm.

Torre reference expected.

Tank the Frank

So what exactly is a “dead arm.” I mean, my understanding of it is that it’s something pitchers go through when they’re building up strength back in their arm after a period of not throwing.

But is it an actual injury? Or is it simply fatigue in the muscles of the arm? Is it related to age/workload? Can it lead to injury? I’m just curious if it’s something so common and inconsequential or if it really is an injury.